Talib Kweli Wants Hip Hop To Look In The Mirror

Lil' Wayne's offensive lyrics are a product of what fans encourage artists to say.

The always insightful Talib Kweli has taken the Lil' Wayne conversation to a higher place. He spoke with AllHipHop.com about Weezy, specifically about his infamous Emmett Till reference in the "Karate Chop" remix.

Talib believes Wayne should apologize for the insensitive lyrics, particularly as he apologized to LeBron James for offending Miami. But Talib isn't putting the blame squarely on Wayne's shoulders. Hip hop as a community has to take responsibility.

“We've been listening to dudes talk about they 'gon' beat the pussy up' on records with all different types of metaphors before the Till family got affected. If we are going to encourage that and like it, then we as a community gotta take the blame. I think it's very convenient for a lot of people to pick a certain line from a song that’s still creative. We’re not talking about censorship. We don’t wanna censor nobody. But I do think it's a bit hypocritical. There is a line in the sand you have to draw but this is the part I find hypocritical. When you criticize Lil Wayne for it and it doesn’t stop as criticism for the line. It continues to ‘He’s a monster and he’s destroying Hip Hop. I wish he would die. I wish he would stop making records.’ When it goes to that, that's not something I can condone. And that also will also make an artist you saying that about say, ‘Well, fuck what you gotta say. My fans support me.’ To me, the better way is through outreach and unity in Hip Hop – finding the similarities rather than the differences. That’s why I always work for these artists. For me, its art first. When you judge whether or not I should be working on an artist, the only thing you should be judging it on is on the song.”